Author Archives: Francesca

ZOYA, an all-natural nail polish company, is giving away three FREE full-size shades of nail polish. Any colors you want. To each and every customer.

Thought that sounded too good to be true? Well you also get three mini bottles of mystery shades. For FREE.

Click the pic to head to Zoya’s website to learn all about the promotion and, of course, BROWSE!

That’s right. You don’t need to buy X amount of bottles, sign away your firstborn, or provide any exceedingly intimate details. All you need to know is the secret code: (NYNH) and pay for shipping & handling. That is one pretty sweet deal.

If you end up treating yourself, come back and tell me what colors you ordered in the comments! I’m excited to see which shades you choose. :) I’m still deciding…

My brother Alex has a history of getting me very thoughtful, very magical gifts. Christmas last year? A real, ceramic ocarina with a songbook from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. It’s truly a work of art. Granted, I never even got the hang of a recorder, so it serves as decorative piece to show how cultured and cool I am ;) and less of a true musical instrument. For my birthday? Lucius Malfoy’s walking stick. Pull on the silver cobra head at the top of the staff and — voila— the magic wand is revealed. It is of the utmost quality and is a legit weapon. I keep it near my front door so that a) all guests may admire it and b) it’s close at hand to battle potential hot prowlers.

And so, Christmas 2014. What would young Alex surprise me with now?

This.

Christian Louboutin / Rouge Louboutin nail varnish.

Check out that black on black packaging with a saucy wink of red. Ooh la la!

The faceted bottle is very beautiful, and it’s even got some ombre shading, too.

The iconic Rouge is encased in a faceted, weighted glass bottle with an unique ombré effect. The tall slender cap, inspired by calligraphy, turns the application into a luxurious experience, inviting women to take their time.

A true indulgence at $50 for one bottle. Yowza! The color is richly red. It’s not quite a true red; it veers on the warm side. The application was great, and the brush made for a very different painting experience. It wasn’t necessarily unwieldy, but it definitely felt unusual. They say that in Roman times, patrician women would dip the tips of their fingers in bright red dye. This was called their domestic look. I felt a little like that; the paint job felt ritualistic in some way.

The spiked handle of this polish is sarcastically large. It’s 8″ (or so it SAYS, hahahah). My friend told me it looks like dark magic; like you have to stab the spike into someone’s still-beating heart and the spike sucks the blood out, and then that’s what you paint your nails with. This bottle, combined with my Lucius stick, means I am at least 80% real sorceress.

So then of course I ordered sangria after she told me that. It means blooooood en español.

Legend has it that Christian painted the soles of a high heel he was designing with red nail polish on a whim. That moment of inspiration helped him make a name for himself in fashion, and now his iconic rouge lacquer serves as the first brick in the beauty product empire that he’s aiming to build. It’s poetic.

Christian Louboutin Rouge will sit in a place of honor, on top of my Stash; partly because it can’t fit with the rest of my bottles, but also because it is a goddess among mortals.

Since I live in Los Angeles, I’m blissfully unaffected by the POLAR VORTEX that’s been pillaging the U.S. I do, however, have lots of friends and family who are dealing with The Polarpocalypse, and all the pictures of snow floating around the The Gram and FB have put me in the mood for a white mani.

Behold! It’s sparkly. It’s snowy. It’s just what I wanted.

This was a very easy manicure to do. I began with two coats of OPI Alpine Snow (so aptly named) and let it dry. Once the polish was mostly set, I applied the Swarovski crystal stickers I’d been hoarding.

What’s cool about this product is that the sticker itself is completely clear, and it holds the crystals in place so you don’t need to spend time painstakingly placing the gems on your nails. The other nice thing is that there’s a little chart included to recommend which sticker goes with which nail. You could go rogue and pavé your own way (ha), but I stuck with their suggestion (hahaha).

Next, I put on a nice thick layer of Seche Vite, being sure to coat the edges on the stickers to make them better seal to my nails. Anything to avoid the dreaded “hair-catching” syndrome.

Indoor lighting really puts the focus on the texture.

This is a great manicure for a special event or party-filled weekend, but be warned: it’s not very long-lasting. Despite my best efforts to seal the deal with Seche Vite, the stickers did begin to come off by Day 4 and by the end of Day 5, the polish was not looking so pretty. But it was fun while it lasted!

Even sad fluorescent lighting couldn’t dull down this mani. Unfortunately, the jewels did begin to fall off. Note that I’m missing one on my ring finger.

As you begin to plan outfits with all of your new holiday baubles & clothes, check out this color wheel reference from LUCKY Magazine. I have been hoarding this since May and am ready to resurrect it for y’all.

Yep. May. See? I knew it would come in handy…

Complementary colors are pretty basic…

Yes, we learned about primary and secondary colors in 3rd grade art class, I know. But stay with me here…

But Lucky’s advice on split complementary colors, color triads and tetradic color schemes are priceless! Click the pics to explore the article. I’m sure a lot of you inherently follow these rules (some of us have a good eye for color!) but it’s fascinating — and very helpful — to see the tried-and-true method behind the madness. This is like, science or whatever.

A-haaaa! See, this is some next-level business. I love this chart so much, I’m printing it out as a reference chart to keep in my STASH.

What a valuable visual for those of you interested in nail art color pairings, or choosing the perfect shade for a special occasion.